SERRE CHEVALIER | Powder Magazine - Ski Photos - Ski Videos - Skiing France

Words and Photos: John Stifter

Whether or not it’s customary for French people to wax tale after tale of the “800-pound whale” story remains uncertain. It could simply be subjective to each individual, like anywhere else in the world. But Salomon’s Bruno Bertrand had no inhibitions waxing about his home ski hill of Serre Chevalier, located a short 30-minute drive east of La Grave near Briancon and the French/Italian border. “I tell you,” waxed Bruno, “that SerChe [Serre Chevalier] gets the five-meter dump alls the time.” Bertrand, a 1992 Albertville Olympian in moguls, switched from busy Alpine Brand Manager of Salomon Sports to smiling, excited kid when speaking of the “five-meter dump” at SerChe. Nonetheless, we listened, as the winds high up on Le Meige made for icy, blind turns in La Grave. And transient skiers the world over raved about the conditions east of the Col du Galiber near Italy.

Convincingly, Bertrand was able to wrangle a few more Salomon office wonks from their desks to SerChe, where they met up with the Powder crew and ski mountaineer turned resort skier, CONTACT _Con-3BDE9F37304 \c \s \l Ptor Spriceniks. “I’m tired of skiing ice,” said the Canadian native Spriceniks. “I wanna ski some pow.” Unlike many Alp resorts, SerChe’s bottom half is plastered with some sort of pine tree I still haven’t been able to properly identify. Ecology aside, it’s a dramatic setting with the sun and foul-weather soaked Alp peaks rising up from the pine-strewn base. Meanwhile, the valley is much wider and less steep than nearby La Grave.

Once our crew assembled, we followed the kid Bertrand around his home mountain. Although the “five-meter dump” proved to be a bit of French hyperbole, we schralped untouched lines of boot-top consolidated powder all day long on the new Czars, Rockers, and Shoguns, all of which performed damn well—especially the mini-rockered Czar that has a giant sweet spot found after a few runs. From couloirs, to trees, to technical mini-pillow lines, to wide-open milky bowls, SerChe satiated Spriceniks and co.’s powder appetite. With more snow in the forecast to add to SerChe and local resorts’ record winter for snowfall, we were content to ski another day, five meters or no. Merci, Bruno!